Yesterday, The New York Times had one of the most frightening articles I have ever read.
In what I think is one of the most perverse misuses of our creative talent that I have ever heard, President Obama is launching a massive Reagan-like Cybersecurity Cold War that has the military-industrial complex salivating. This is expected to soak up the trained computer scientists from Silicon Valley and put them into super-secret R&D.
Instead of creating value for the global economy, they will now be sequestered in high-security laboratories where the knowledge they create will only slowly, if ever, leak out to the commercial world. Mind you, this initiative is being pushed while Harvard and many other universities are considering firing tenured faculty. If a massive military cybersecurity program is the change that the current administration believes is going to assist the U.S. economy in overcoming the worst crisis of the last 75 years, then the future for us and our creative class is likely to be grim indeed.
It is my belief that openness, information exchange, and creating value for the consumer has been the hallmark of U.S. success and what made us a beacon for brilliant people from around the world. By taking some of best and brightest and sequestering them in laboratories shrouded in secrecy, we are taking a deliberate step in the wrong direction.
Can a creative economy be built on directing resources in such directions?
June 1st, 2009 at 11:58 am
Yes and no. I mean, yes you are right, it WOULD BE NICE if these guys could work out in the open, on more… productive? persuits.
But this isn’t a perfect world, and as we have learned recently, there are some serious cybersecurity threats out there. Our most basic systems have been hacked by Chinese and Russian agents.
Something needs to be done to make sure those holes are closed. Maybe Obama is over-reacting, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. This is not something that we can ignore.
June 1st, 2009 at 1:28 pm
The Internet itself can be traced back to DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, so it’s hard to argue that high-tech military R&D can’t offer broad benefits. And as Buzzcut says, this is necessary work. Power grids, transportation systems, and medical records all increasingly rely on information technologies: a cyber-attack is cheaper, less easily detected, and potentially just as dangerous as a traditional act of terrorism.
Also, it’s an oversimplification to talk about “trained computer scientists” as if they’re all indistinguishable. Those who’d be suited to Defense Dept. hacker jobs probably aren’t the ones who’d dream up the next Twitter or Google.
June 1st, 2009 at 3:17 pm
It still amazes me that people don’t understand how vulnerable the world wide web is. The Japanese are considering and are in the early planning stages of building their own version due to the lack of security in the current system. The only thing shocking is that the US hasn’t clued into this until now.
June 1st, 2009 at 3:52 pm
“Creating value for the consumer”
Martin, please reconsider ….
Do consumers think the locks on their doors are valueless? Do they think that the police are valueless? The army?
We, consumers, all value protection, and we are prepared to pay a lot for it. It is also obvious to anyone connected to the internet that we all need better protection. Are you sure your computer is not part of a botnet?
June 1st, 2009 at 4:22 pm
“is the change that the current administration believes is going to assist the U.S. economy”
don’t kid yourself, they are neo-statists who don’t embrace the idea of free market capitalism. NOTHING they do will make the world a better place for the creative class.
June 1st, 2009 at 4:47 pm
To take this thread in another direction…
What productive applications have been created since the tech bubble broke?
Neither Facebook, Twitter, nor YouTube generate even enough money for their owners to pay for the servers used to host the applications.
There may be productive value in these concerns, but you would think that they would at least figure out a way to pay the bills!
Sorry to be a downer, but I wonder if all these free applications are just another unsustainable aspect of the credit bubble. Are any of these things sustainable?
June 1st, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I dunno, Martin. Maybe these people could work for famously open and sharing companies like Google and Microsoft? Certainly their work would be commercialized faster but openness & information exchange? I don’t think so.
As far as waste in the military-industrial complex, I’m in you there. Years ago during another economic downturn I worked with some guys who had been laid off by military subcontractors and the featherbedding stories they told were unbelievable. Hopefully the hacker mentality will escape some of the wasted unproductive time of most military work.
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Martin, you make a funny kind of argument. So let me make a couple very long-winded remarks.
First, consider the technologies that have emerged from the much-maligned military-industrial complex: helicopters, carrot cake, nuclear power, cool metal canoes, and even DARPAnet (one contender to the I-Started-the-Internet Throne). It is further odd to note that the proximate cause for DARPAnet was fear of an attack on American information technology infrastructure (i.e. the very same stuff that these smart grads are heading to Parts Unknown to do).
Indeed, the mixing of the best and brighted minds with the unlimited budgets that our complex of ill-repute brings may not be the worst thing in the world. And while I do recognize that this will ensure that products will take longer to be brought to market, I find it highly debatable that we (the consumers) will see any discernible lack of nifty innovative and valuable content and/or products on which to conspicuously overspend.
Second: I know that it seems terrible to send young, bright creative people into the belly of the military beast. But have a little faith in the creative class. They are transforming the rest of the bland, grey corporate world, and they may indeed have the same effect fighting rogue Sino-Russian cyber-commandos. Let’s hope they do.
Finally: The “hallmark of American success.” Yes the US has, since these things started to be recorded, produces the highest level of per capita patent filings, works of art, etc. and so is without question a vibrant nation of smart and creative folks. However, as even a cursory glance at a history book will elucidate, that creativity and genius has ALWAYS been backed by the might of the US military (for better or worse). Higher tarrifs to protect native industry? Go to war with the South. Want commerce in Japan? Bring me some gunboats. Freer markets in Africa? Send in the para-military guerrillas. Should it really come as any surprise that in the 21st century 2that American openness, creative exchange and value-creation (all loosely/fuzzily defined terms i might add) should be achored on some solid 21st century military might – even if it is virtual.
Can a creative economy really be build in any other way? (in the U.S., that is)